Syria can't even tame their own rebel, and suddenly they are going to take on Israel? Lebanon is scared shiatless that the sectarian violence will spill over on their side of the border worst than it already has, and no way they are getting involved over this. Jordan? Egypt? Don't make me laugh. What are the Iraqis going to do about it? Yemen? Saudi Arabia? Qatar? Dubai? UAE?

The only wildcard there is Iran... and how on earth are they going to be able to project enough power to make it to Israel? What, they'd fire missiles at Israel? That would be giving us (and America) the perfect opportunity to get rid of their nuclear weapons program.

These cries of 'Tis the end of the world as we know it!' are ridiculous.

What would be very cool is for Iran to launch a missile at Haifa and it goes off course and takes out Mecca. During Hajj.

Popcorn Johnny:JohnnyC: I see Israel's Fark Propaganda Officer is on the case...

So what are you saying, Israel didn't target a shipment of highly accurate missiles and really blew up a milk factory?

No... I'm saying that regardless of the story at hand, if it has to do with Israel, Tatsuma will be in the thread attempting to dominate the discussion in one way or another. By deflecting the issue and/or trying to make the thread about himself or by trying to demean/belittle anyone who isn't happy about Israel's involvement in the story.

Tatsuma:Infernalist: It's amazing how few people know about the Liberty.

They know about it, and they know it was a terrible accent, and they moved on.

Ctrl-f "case closed" until my post about it in yesterday's thread.

With that in mind, what has the US gotten out of the billions of dollarswe have sent to Israel? And can you name another nation that, ooops, accidentally blew up one of our ships in peacetime? Should we just get over Johnathan Jay Pollard too?

To be completely fair, I think it time to wash our hands of the entire Middle East, not just an ungrateful nation that does nothing for us but take more and more of our money whike expectung us to "move on" and forget they destroyed one of our naval vessels in international waters. With most of our oil coming frim Canada and Mexico, it's time to cut and run from the Middle East. And that means Israel too. It shouldn't be our problem anymore

Infernalist:It has more to do with what they do rather than what they are. Try to wrap your brain around that

He can't, because he can't admit that anything the Israeli state does is wrong. Everything has some kind of excuse. Since it's a Jewish state, and he is Jewish, he can't separate the state from the religion.

Infernalist:It has more to do with what they do rather than what they are. Try to wrap your brain around that.

Syria's been waging a war against its own civilians, has killed more than 70,000 (close to 80,000 at this point), has used chemical weapons, is transferring some of their arsenal to terrorist groups, and yet a lot of people are a lot more pissed off with Israel for destroying a military depot in the middle of nowhere and not killing a single civilian.

So, yeah, when people focus overly on Israel when there are a lot of people doing a lot worse, it's likely due to an anti-Jewish obsession than reality.

Tatsuma:Infernalist: It has more to do with what they do rather than what they are. Try to wrap your brain around that.

Syria's been waging a war against its own civilians, has killed more than 70,000 (close to 80,000 at this point), has used chemical weapons, is transferring some of their arsenal to terrorist groups, and yet a lot of people are a lot more pissed off with Israel for destroying a military depot in the middle of nowhere and not killing a single civilian.

So, yeah, when people focus overly on Israel when there are a lot of people doing a lot worse, it's likely due to an anti-Jewish obsession than reality.

I'm actually pissed off at Israel for constantly provoking the rest of the region when they clearly have the advantage. When you pick a fight when you're clearly the strongest party, then you're a bully. And I don't give a damn what your background is, if you pick a fight with weaker parties knowing they can't win, that makes you a bully.

Infernalist:I'm actually pissed off at Israel for constantly provoking the rest of the region when they clearly have the advantage. When you pick a fight when you're clearly the strongest party, then you're a bully. And I don't give a damn what your background is, if you pick a fight with weaker parties knowing they can't win, that makes you a bully.

And most people don't like bullies.

So when Israel prevents Syria from sending missiles and possibly chemical weapons to Hizbullah, this is bullying?

Tatsuma:Infernalist: I'm actually pissed off at Israel for constantly provoking the rest of the region when they clearly have the advantage. When you pick a fight when you're clearly the strongest party, then you're a bully. And I don't give a damn what your background is, if you pick a fight with weaker parties knowing they can't win, that makes you a bully.

And most people don't like bullies.

So when Israel prevents Syria from sending missiles and possibly chemical weapons to Hizbullah, this is bullying?

Nope, but when they break up peaceful protests with violence, that makes them bullies. No better in action and motive than the white supremacists in the 1960s South attacking the black marchers.

Infernalist:Nope, but when they break up peaceful protests with violence, that makes them bullies. No better in action and motive than the white supremacists in the 1960s South attacking the black marchers.

Tatsuma:Infernalist: Nope, but when they break up peaceful protests with violence, that makes them bullies. No better in action and motive than the white supremacists in the 1960s South attacking the black marchers.

Tatsuma:Infernalist: Nope, but when they break up peaceful protests with violence, that makes them bullies. No better in action and motive than the white supremacists in the 1960s South attacking the black marchers.

How is that 'provoking the region'?

The Palestinians are used as a rallying banner and when their peaceful actions are ruthlessly suppressed, it gives credence to the more violent actors in the region. And when those violent people step up their actions, it gives the Israelis reason and excuse to retaliate even harder.

Tatsuma:C18H27NO3: Tatsuma, have you always been over there or have you been to the U.S. at all?No reason for asking really, just curious.

Grew up all over North America, then spent a lot of the last decade going back and forth, moved permanently two years ago and now visiting relatives in NA

ThrobblefootSpectre: *facepalm*

He's actually not too far off. Again, most people hate Jews, so it's not really a surprise that most people will hate the world's only Jewish country, is it?

After the shoah mostly everyone supported the creation of Israel and Jewish people. Today's view of Israel isn't merry for several reasonable reasons. In less than a century that sure says something...I don't believe "most people hate jews" at all. Most people don't hate in such a generalised manner but then again I might be fluffy inside.

Syria can't even tame their own rebel, and suddenly they are going to take on Israel? Lebanon is scared shiatless that the sectarian violence will spill over on their side of the border worst than it already has, and no way they are getting involved over this. Jordan? Egypt? Don't make me laugh. What are the Iraqis going to do about it? Yemen? Saudi Arabia? Qatar? Dubai? UAE?

The only wildcard there is Iran... and how on earth are they going to be able to project enough power to make it to Israel? What, they'd fire missiles at Israel? That would be giving us (and America) the perfect opportunity to get rid of their nuclear weapons program.

These cries of 'Tis the end of the world as we know it!' are ridiculous.

C18H27NO3:Tatsuma, have you always been over there or have you been to the U.S. at all?No reason for asking really, just curious.

I believe he is a US native who has recently spent time in Israel. From a recent post, he was somewhere that involved getting up at 6am and spending all day in prayer and religious study. Or, as we say when it's the other side, he was radicalised at a training camp.

spiderpaz:That's fine, if you're arguing that Israel's Muslim neighbors would never team up (as they have in the past) because they don't actually care about what Israel does and only cynically pretend to care in order to manipulate their own people for political reasons. That's fine, but I really do actually think he believes Israel to be some kind of military juggernaut that hasn't relied heavily on the US for decades.

Oh, I agree. I'm just saying that you can't just pick random countries and talk about them teaming up to attack Israel.

stryed:Most people don't hate in such a generalised manner but then again I might be fluffy inside.

No, you're absolutely right. Most people are so utterly myopic and self-involved that they only really hate things and individuals that they feel have slighted them personally. There's a lot of faux hatred and outrage that goes around but that's just the crap that people have been indoctrinated with and do (a) to fit in and (b) because it feels good.

But that really nasty, murderous, blinding hatred? Yeah- people are mostly too selfish and lazy these days to actively hate large swaths of social groups. On the rare occasion that someone displays that level of zeal and forest-for-the-trees hateful thinking, we appropriately label them extremists.

mark12A:Europeans hate everybody. Including each other. Don't let it give you a complex.

I think Jews have a right to be paranoid after the Europeans killed 6 million Jews in an industrial-scale killing spree.

Israel has been attacked multiple times by the Arab world, so it's not unreasonable for them to be pro-active in countering emerging threats.

Jews are like the smart kids in school. Everybody hates them. Regardless of what they do. They dominate the Nobel Prize list. That really cheeses people off.

Not belittling Nobel prize winners or Jewish people but...check this out, Feynmann on honors and Nobel prizes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMaBmik4VYgFor the sake of argument, posting hot IDF women and hot middle eastern women would do the whole world a lot of good. At least more than expousing the accomplishments of E.Kandel or other jewish nationals.

cameroncrazy1984:radarlove: BolshyGreatYarblocks: Speaking of cephalopods, has the psychic World Cup octopus weighed in on who will win? I've got some disposable income, and 401(k)s don't earn what they used to.

ThrobblefootSpectre:Tatsuma: Been to Europe lately? It's not fun WWJ* in France, England, Spain, Belgium and many other countries.

Europeans hate everybody. Including each other. Don't let it give you a complex.

I know a good number of people who "hate" (for some definitions of the word) Israel, for various reasons. That said, as a person who - through no fault of my own - was born in Texas...I can tell you that yes. The people in those countries tend to hate lots of people. France especially, not a lot of love for Americans. Texans - hell, I get people hating on me even though I moved away as soon as I graduated high school. Texans, and recovering Texans, get hated on even within the US. People within the US hate on Californians, too.

It's almost as though the us-versus-them mentality is a core part of the human experience - as though it was essential to creating communities which could survive, during the evolutionarily-formative years for our species.

So all that said - yeah. Until France starts bombing Israel, don't take their hate personally. They hate everyone, themselves included. So do the rest of the people on the planet.